President Trump Is Cutting Medical Research By $1.2 Billion At The NIH

President Donald Trump is preparing to cut the National Institutes of Health’s budget for next year by 20% or $1.2 billion.

Trump laid out a vague plan for 2018 earlier this month and on Tuesday the White House laid out a plan full of ideas for this year’s budget.

While the President usually lays out the budget for the House and Senate, Congress has traditionally been in favor of supporting medical research spending.

The 2017 budget year ends in October and Trump is hoping to shift more money to military defense spending while slashing budgets for education, medical, and environmental programs, among other agencies and programs.

“They are forcing these rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul decisions that will have consequences for a generation,” he added.

The NIH currently operates under a $31.6 billion budget.

Other health and science programs set to lose money include:

$350 million from the National Science Foundation’s $6.9 billion budget

$37 million from the Department of Energy’s $5.3 billion worth of science programs

$48 million from the Environmental Protection Agency’s research and development budget of $483 million

The President also plans to cut $100 million from HIV/AIDS programs on a national and international level and $242 million from the Presidential Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) which has a budget of $4.3 billion.

The Global Health Security fund will lose all of its $72 million in funding and other health programs will lose a combined $152 million.